The Justice Faez Isa submitted his rejoined to the Supreme Court seized with the hearing of petitions challenging reference against him.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-17th Oct, 2019) Justice Qazi Faez Isa has said that nobody including the president, the prime minister or the law minister have any right to undermine the constitution and destroy the judiciary’s independence.
He was pleading before the Supreme Court in petitions challenging a reference against him. In rejoinder to the court which was submitted by Attorney General Anwar Mansoor on his behalf categorically said that President Alvi did not make his own independent opinion while moving a reference against the petitioner (Justice Isa). He said the income tax law was misinterpreted by the prime minister, the law minister and others and mistakenly applied it to his family members. He said the income tax law was applicable to the dependent wife and to dependent children. The justice also questioned that why the government did not make public the wealth of the prime minister in accordance with its interpretation of ITO provisions.
“Why the tax returns and wealth statements of the prime minister were not being made public by the government despite that he had clearly said it was his and that was his family?,” Justice Isa said in his rejoinder.
He said the agencies and particularly the FIA helped the government to have access to the information and data of his family and Nadra help it to main other documents related to the petitioner (justice Isa) and his family. By doing so, the government violated Article 4 and Article 14 of the constitution by not taking him and his family into confidence, Justice Isa said. In a separate rejoinder, Justice Isa said that Supreme Judicial Council admitted for hearing the reference moved against him in haste and thus deprived him of his right to fair trial and due process. He submitted this rejoined to the statement of the SCJ’s secretary. The reference was moved by the SJC’s secretary at the moment when he was on sanctioned leave to assist his wife in taking care of her ailing father, the reference concluded.
